BWFoster78
Myth Weaver
(Disclaimer: the primary purpose of this thread is to organize my thoughts on the subject. Those thoughts are my best understanding at the moment and may change at any time. If you can point to something that I got wrong, that’s fantastic! It’s much better for me to find out now rather than later. These thoughts are, however, the result of much reading about the subject; hopefully, others can gain something from this post and its responses as well.)
Okay, well not all about reviews; I went into details on how to get reviews in this thread: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/marketing/15172-step-step-how-get-reviews.html
Two Big Review No-No’s:
1. Do not engage. No matter how much you disagree with a posted review, do not engage. No matter how “wrong” the facts of the review are, do not engage. No matter how unfair and/or unhelpful the review is, do not engage. Reviews are for readers, not authors, and every reviewer is entitled to his opinion. Period. In a public space like Amazon or Goodreads, you shouldn’t even comment to say something as innocuous as, “Thanks for the review.” If you’ve solicited a review by email, do not indicate you’ve even read the review unless the reviewer contacts you first. If you’re featured on a blog, ask the blogger if your comments are desired. If so, only post, “Thank you for your comments.” Be friendly, and perhaps self effacing, at all costs.
2. Do not buy reviews. It is not worth the wrath of the online community if your deception is found out nor is it worth the possibility of having your book removed from Amazon. There are better ways to get reviews. (Note: This advice applies to the practice of paying reviewers to leave comments. That practice is a violation of Amazon’s TOS. The only compensation you can offer a reviewer is a free copy of your book. This advice does not apply to paying a 3rd party for reviewer contact information or to be a middleman for offering free copies of your book to volunteer reviewers. Both those services are ethical practices. It’s also, apparently, okay to pay Kirkus a boatload of money for a review, though I don’t quite understand why as I haven’t really studied the matter.)
Now, the big question —
How Important Are Reviews?:
As far as either adding to sales or impeding them, short answer — no idea. Back in the day, an entrepreneurial self publisher created a ton of sock puppet reviews for his books and made a bunch of money. Ever since, it’s been accepted theory that reviews provide necessary “social proof” for customers. I simply don’t know how accurate that theory is. Regardless, the standard advice is for you to obtain reviews. When I launch a book, I try to do enough advance work so that I get six reviews or so right out of the gate.
As an author, I look at a bad review or a low rating and think, “That’s it. I’m sunk. No one is going to buy my book with that big, ugly, negative review sitting there.” In my case, my first reviews were fairly negative (3.6 average for the first 11) with a lot of harsh criticisms. My sales did not seem to suffer, though I can’t say for certain that I wouldn’t have received even more sales had the reviews been more positive. (Note: After making some changes to my manuscript, my rating is climbing.)
There is one way, however, in which reviews are absolutely proven to be a crucial component to your success — promo sites. A lot of these services use reviews as their way to determine quality. If your overall rating is under 3.5 to 4 (depending on the site), you can forget it, and 5 to 20 (again depending on the site) reviews are required.
More important to me than sales or promo sites was the feedback that the reviews offered. My goal is to entertain my reader. Reviews offer real feedback from real readers, and they pointed out an issue that, contrary to my intentions, was causing some readers to have serious enjoyment issues with my book. Had I not solicited so many reviews, I might not have understood the severity of the problem in time to correct it relatively early in the lifetime of my book. Once I’m more experienced as a writer, such feedback might not be nearly as important, but as a beginner, it is crucial.
Okay, onto a couple of miscellaneous items …
Review Ratings:
This is something that I didn’t know until very recently — there’s actually a difference between what ratings mean on Amazon versus Goodreads. While every reader uses their own subjective standards, it’s generally considered that Amazon ratings are higher than Goodreads, especially at the high end. Where a 5 on Goodreads means “one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life,” a five on Amazon is “I really liked it.”
I think that, in light of this, my early reviews on Amazon were probably too harsh as far as ratings go.
Should Authors Review Other Books?:
Amazon’s policy basically says that you can’t review something if you have a competing product for sale. A lot of authors have taken this to mean that they can’t review books in their genre without risking having their books being removed by Amazon. Some have even taken this policy to mean that they can’t review other books at all.
Though no one has ever accuses Amazon of clearly communicating their policies (or enforcing them consistently), most authors seem to agree that this provision exists mainly so that Amazon can eliminate abuses of the review system. If you are buying books and leaving thoughtful reviews, it’s unlikely that you’re going to encounter any problems. Worst case scenario is likely to be that Amazon simply deletes the review.
That being said, I can’t find fault with any author who thinks that it is not worth the risk.
Also, if you leave a bad review for another author, are you inviting a retaliatory bad review? Or if you leave a good review, is that person going to return the favor and make it look like you’re participating in a review exchange? I don’t exactly stay awake at night worrying about such, but again, I can’t fault any author who decides it’s simply not worth the risk.
More problematic to me is the question, “What is your purpose in leaving the review?” Since reviews are meant to help readers, it doesn’t seem ethical to leave reviews praising books that you didn’t like. On the other hand, I’m out to help fellow authors, not hurt them. Since 3 star reviews and lower are below what the promo sites will take, I don’t feel comfortable leaving a rating less than 4 stars.
Thus I’m left with my new review policy (Note: not trying to advocate a position of anyone else; merely working through my own thoughts ) —
If I come across a book I like, I’ll leave a 4 or 5 star review as appropriate. If someone asks me to review their book and I accept, I’ll not leave a review if I can’t rate it 3 stars or higher. I will, however, provide that author with private feedback on the reason for how I would have rated the book. I also will base my reviews more on my current understanding of what the ratings “should” indicate rather than my previous scale. inally, most of my old reviews tended to be more focused on “writerly” concerns. In the future, I’m going to endeavor to make my comments more in line with what readers are looking for.
Hope this helped. I’d love to know your thoughts.
Brian
Okay, well not all about reviews; I went into details on how to get reviews in this thread: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/marketing/15172-step-step-how-get-reviews.html
Two Big Review No-No’s:
1. Do not engage. No matter how much you disagree with a posted review, do not engage. No matter how “wrong” the facts of the review are, do not engage. No matter how unfair and/or unhelpful the review is, do not engage. Reviews are for readers, not authors, and every reviewer is entitled to his opinion. Period. In a public space like Amazon or Goodreads, you shouldn’t even comment to say something as innocuous as, “Thanks for the review.” If you’ve solicited a review by email, do not indicate you’ve even read the review unless the reviewer contacts you first. If you’re featured on a blog, ask the blogger if your comments are desired. If so, only post, “Thank you for your comments.” Be friendly, and perhaps self effacing, at all costs.
2. Do not buy reviews. It is not worth the wrath of the online community if your deception is found out nor is it worth the possibility of having your book removed from Amazon. There are better ways to get reviews. (Note: This advice applies to the practice of paying reviewers to leave comments. That practice is a violation of Amazon’s TOS. The only compensation you can offer a reviewer is a free copy of your book. This advice does not apply to paying a 3rd party for reviewer contact information or to be a middleman for offering free copies of your book to volunteer reviewers. Both those services are ethical practices. It’s also, apparently, okay to pay Kirkus a boatload of money for a review, though I don’t quite understand why as I haven’t really studied the matter.)
Now, the big question —
How Important Are Reviews?:
As far as either adding to sales or impeding them, short answer — no idea. Back in the day, an entrepreneurial self publisher created a ton of sock puppet reviews for his books and made a bunch of money. Ever since, it’s been accepted theory that reviews provide necessary “social proof” for customers. I simply don’t know how accurate that theory is. Regardless, the standard advice is for you to obtain reviews. When I launch a book, I try to do enough advance work so that I get six reviews or so right out of the gate.
As an author, I look at a bad review or a low rating and think, “That’s it. I’m sunk. No one is going to buy my book with that big, ugly, negative review sitting there.” In my case, my first reviews were fairly negative (3.6 average for the first 11) with a lot of harsh criticisms. My sales did not seem to suffer, though I can’t say for certain that I wouldn’t have received even more sales had the reviews been more positive. (Note: After making some changes to my manuscript, my rating is climbing.)
There is one way, however, in which reviews are absolutely proven to be a crucial component to your success — promo sites. A lot of these services use reviews as their way to determine quality. If your overall rating is under 3.5 to 4 (depending on the site), you can forget it, and 5 to 20 (again depending on the site) reviews are required.
More important to me than sales or promo sites was the feedback that the reviews offered. My goal is to entertain my reader. Reviews offer real feedback from real readers, and they pointed out an issue that, contrary to my intentions, was causing some readers to have serious enjoyment issues with my book. Had I not solicited so many reviews, I might not have understood the severity of the problem in time to correct it relatively early in the lifetime of my book. Once I’m more experienced as a writer, such feedback might not be nearly as important, but as a beginner, it is crucial.
Okay, onto a couple of miscellaneous items …
Review Ratings:
This is something that I didn’t know until very recently — there’s actually a difference between what ratings mean on Amazon versus Goodreads. While every reader uses their own subjective standards, it’s generally considered that Amazon ratings are higher than Goodreads, especially at the high end. Where a 5 on Goodreads means “one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life,” a five on Amazon is “I really liked it.”
I think that, in light of this, my early reviews on Amazon were probably too harsh as far as ratings go.
Should Authors Review Other Books?:
Amazon’s policy basically says that you can’t review something if you have a competing product for sale. A lot of authors have taken this to mean that they can’t review books in their genre without risking having their books being removed by Amazon. Some have even taken this policy to mean that they can’t review other books at all.
Though no one has ever accuses Amazon of clearly communicating their policies (or enforcing them consistently), most authors seem to agree that this provision exists mainly so that Amazon can eliminate abuses of the review system. If you are buying books and leaving thoughtful reviews, it’s unlikely that you’re going to encounter any problems. Worst case scenario is likely to be that Amazon simply deletes the review.
That being said, I can’t find fault with any author who thinks that it is not worth the risk.
Also, if you leave a bad review for another author, are you inviting a retaliatory bad review? Or if you leave a good review, is that person going to return the favor and make it look like you’re participating in a review exchange? I don’t exactly stay awake at night worrying about such, but again, I can’t fault any author who decides it’s simply not worth the risk.
More problematic to me is the question, “What is your purpose in leaving the review?” Since reviews are meant to help readers, it doesn’t seem ethical to leave reviews praising books that you didn’t like. On the other hand, I’m out to help fellow authors, not hurt them. Since 3 star reviews and lower are below what the promo sites will take, I don’t feel comfortable leaving a rating less than 4 stars.
Thus I’m left with my new review policy (Note: not trying to advocate a position of anyone else; merely working through my own thoughts ) —
If I come across a book I like, I’ll leave a 4 or 5 star review as appropriate. If someone asks me to review their book and I accept, I’ll not leave a review if I can’t rate it 3 stars or higher. I will, however, provide that author with private feedback on the reason for how I would have rated the book. I also will base my reviews more on my current understanding of what the ratings “should” indicate rather than my previous scale. inally, most of my old reviews tended to be more focused on “writerly” concerns. In the future, I’m going to endeavor to make my comments more in line with what readers are looking for.
Hope this helped. I’d love to know your thoughts.
Brian
Last edited by a moderator: